Welcome to another edition of From My Collection. This past weekend, Doug Ingle, lead singer and organist for proto-metal pioneers Iron Butterfly, passed away at the age of 78. He was the last surviving original member of the storied act. While the significance of these late ’60s proto-metal bands seems to have collectively dwindled with the passage of time (It makes one wonder what the fate of Slayer and Morbid Angel will be in another 20 years), there’s no denying Iron Butterfly’s role in setting the stage for what we know and love today as heavy metal. In honor of Ingle and his metallic winged cohorts, we revisit their second and most significant album, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. “Oh won’t you come with me?”
Formed in 1966, Iron Butterfly came to be in what was a turbulent time for rock music. The British Invasion and garage rock crazes of just a couple years earlier were winding down. Bands like The Beach Boys and The Beatles were pushing the boundaries of rock to their absolute creative limits, the latter resigning to the studio for good after an August 29, 1966 concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. It’s ironic that the Fabs’ live end would happen in San Francisco, where the scene and style that would dominate the remainder of the decade was born: psychedelic rock.
Visually and musically speaking, Iron Butterfly embodied the psychedelic aesthetic to a T. Amidst the overnight success of acts like Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, record labels scrambled to sign virtually any band with a foreign sounding name and “far out” tunes. Inevitably, Iron Butterfly were swept up in this wave. The quartet was signed to Atco who released their debut album, the cryptically titled Heavy (1968). True to its title, Heavy was indeed heavy, expanding upon the droning guitar/organ attack pioneered by Vanilla Fudge a year earlier. The opening “Possession” even borders on doom metal, while the rest of the album comes off as a revved up, acid-drenched spin on garage rock. Little did Iron Butterfly know their finest hour awaited.
In an age where rock bands were expected to release a minimum of two studio albums a year (with perhaps a live album or greatest hits comp to spare in between), Iron Butterfly quickly retreated to the studio to record what would become their defining moment, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Although largely characterized by its 17 minute title epic (which will be tackling shortly), In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida itself became more than just an album or song. It penetrated the core of pop culture itself, being referenced in everything from The Simpsons to Bill Nye the Science Guy as a snapshot of the era it embodied.
Considering the world’s collective obsession with In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida‘s B-side, let’s start by tackling its oft neglected A-side. The album opens up with heavy psych rocker, “Most Anything You Want”. From its opening guitar chords, this is the sound of a band who even in the span of 6 short months, have matured significantly. Sonically, it already sounds heavier and punchier than the bulk of the material on Heavy, disorienting the listener with its clash of harsh fuzz guitars and flowery psych pop harmonies. Think the literal musical amalgamation of iron’s heaviness with a butterfly’s grace.
Following this is the breezy “Flowers and Beads”. Even though it would be another decade before AOR bands like Journey and Toto would define the west coast sound, “Flowers and Beads” could rightfully be described as such, if only in reference to the atmosphere of the west coast circa ’68. It’s a whimsical tune, filled with peace, love, and hit single potential. Think groovy enough to market to the tie-dyed clad freakers, but marketable enough for the record company to peddle to middle American families via Ed Sullivan and Casey Kasem. It’s a fun song, even if not fully reflective of the band’s musical abilities.
The psychedelia continues with the ominous “My Mirage”. While sonically it’s about on par with “Flowers and Beads”, compositionally, it’s another story altogether. This is no happy go lucky romp through Haight-Ashbury, but rather a bittersweet tale of a man longing for his woman. All of this, mind you, set to an arrangement defined by Ingle’s eerie, atmospheric organ. It’s one of those jams where one tends to get lost in the ambiance of the composition, hence the “psychedelic” of psychedelic rock. Again, both lyrically and musically, this is a far more mature piece than most of those that make up Heavy.
After two pseudo-ballads, “Termination” sees Iron Butterfly flex their rock muscle again with guitarist Eric Brann coming to the forefront with some biting riffage. Ironically, it’s Brann who wrote this song alongside bassist Lee Dorman and delivers a soulful lead vocal performance, explaining his prominence as a player on this cut. Maybe it’s just me, but if you strip away the psychedelic flourishes and amp up its intensity, at its core, these are some riffs that could’ve fit on any ’70s metal album, or perhaps even an early NWOBHM release circa ’79 (i.e. an Angel Witch demo).
Side A closes with the wildest cut on the album up until this point, “Are You Happy”. The way Ingle asks us the question as the song opens, it’s as if we better answer “Yes”…or else. Again, heavy psych brutishness collides with AM friendly hooks and melody, which in the case of Iron Butterfly was their greatest ally. They were crossover before the concept of such was a thing, not just proving pivotal to the foundation of metal, but also paving the way for hard and heavy acts who wanted to flex their muscle in the pop arena, as many would come the ’70s (i.e. Uriah Heep, Nazareth, Blue Öyster Cult).
As we flip over to side B, well…what can I write that hasn’t been written already. “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” has been analyzed, scrutinized, dissected, inspected, recollected, and revisited by every self respecting rock journalist of the last 55+ years. It will continue to be so for another 55 years. Why? Because Iron Butterfly accomplished more in 17 minutes than most bands could in 17 years, no, 17 lifetimes. Up until this point, psychedelic rock was defined, almost exclusively (save for The Doors), by happy hippie hedonism and a carefree attitude. “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”, with its morose atmosphere, psych doom guitars, ritualistic organs, and eastern flavored drumming, showcased the dark side of psychedelia, even if unintentionally.
There’s something inexplicably mystical about it, an aura that wouldn’t be recaptured until the likes of Black Sabbath a couple years later, and expanded upon by darker traditional metal bands like Death SS and Mercyful Fate even later on. Although it may be hard for my fellow twenty-something year old metalheads to wrap their heads around such a concept, the fact is, they need to do exactly such. To fully appreciate this music, its scene, and the vast subgenres it has since spawned, one must, at the very least, understand and appreciate where it came from. Admittedly, Iron Butterfly weren’t alone in their heavy plight, but they sure were there in the beginning.
As for Iron Butterfly, while they’d never replicate the creative or commercial success of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, they did hold it together for a few more years before subsequently metamorphosing (pun fully intended) into the equally influential Captain Beyond, but that’s another essay for another day. Until then, we hold our horns high to the sky and salute the mighty Iron Butterfly, now reunited in the great beyond and likely jamming their way through a totally wild rendition of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”. Rest in power Doug, Ron, Lee, and Eric.